A large number of papers and patents addressing the production, recovery, and purification of olefins show their industrial importance and the problems encountered in the exploitation of the various processes.
Recently, the production capacity of ethylene units has attained and even exceeded the level of 1 million tons per year for a single line; which requires a new approach in the design of the process, equipment, and the controllability of the unit.
In systems of recovery and purification, particularly for ethylene, the elimination of acetylene is a key element in purification. Because of its relative volatility with respect to ethylene and ethane, it cannot be separated by distillation. In industrial practice, only two processes are applied: absorption of acetylene by a solvent and hydrogenation to ethylene and ethane.
The first method involves the use of a solvent which is usually N,N-dimethylformamide (DMF) or N-methylpyrrolidone (NMP), which allows for preferential recovery of dissolved acetylene.
The second method, catalytic hydrogenation, is generally carried out by treatment of all the gas from cracking before separation of the hydrogen contained in it, or a separate treatment of the cuts containing C2 hydrocarbons after addition of sufficiently pure hydrogen to transform all the acetylene into ethylene and ethane. These two types of hydrogenation use palladium-based catalysts with different formulations.
The stage of hydrogenation of acetylene has also been the subject of a number of papers and inventions dealing with the catalyst system and the formulations of the catalyst, and exposing the specific disadvantages connected with each of the hydrogenation technologies.
Thus, in the case of treatment of all the cracking gas originating from the pyrolysis of hydrocarbons in a hydrogenation reactor, a racing reaction may occur, corresponding to an acceleration of the kinetics of the reaction transforming the acetylene into ethylene (and also undesirable secondary reactions) because of a significant increase in the temperature of the catalyst together with the presence of a large excess of hydrogen (50 to 100 times the quantity required by stoichiometry). The ethylene can then be transformed into ethane and may thereby cause a significant rise in temperature, which requires immediate depressurizing of the reactor to prevent an explosion.
In the case of treatment of the C2 cut alone, polymerization of the acetylene and progressive deactivation of the catalyst may occur, because of the large concentration of unsaturated hydrocarbons in the cut to be treated, which necessitates regeneration or periodic replacement of the catalyst charge. Generally, a reserve reactor is installed to avoid interrupting production. In addition, it is necessary to use a purified hydrogen current for the reaction, and these two aspects tend to increase the investments for reserve equipment or the equipment used only for the purpose described.